A special on journalism in Russia

Official repression and self-censorship have characterised the reporting by local journalists of sensitive issues surrounding the 2014 Sochi winter Olympics, according to a new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Also, you'll hear from the only US journalist to be expelled from Russia in 30 years, plus case studies of reporters intimidated and fired for doing their job.

Credits

Comments (8)

crank :

06 Feb 2014 8:35:09pm

'Radio Liberty'- it is to laugh. The Hudson Institute-yet another Rightwing propaganda outfit one of hundreds that the global overlord uses to brainwash and intimidate. Russia and Putin in particular are targets of the Western MSM hate-machine for one reason only. Putin doesn't follow orders from the Boss in Washington, so he is the Devil, and every Western MSM presstitute knows that saying otherwise means 'career over'. The threat of 'censorship' in Russia only hangs over organs dedicated to spreading social discord, very often using finance and advice from US 'regime change' organs, or from Soros and his ilk and their archipelago of phony 'human rights' groups. The MSM propaganda in the Western Rightwing apparatus is, in the familiar tradition, 100% negative, misleading and openly mendacious. In 'The Fundament'(The fundamental orifice of the Nation)alias 'The Australian'today, one hack openly lied that 'Russia invaded Georgia in 2008', when everybody alive, sentient and in touch with the media at that time knows that Georgia's fascist ruler, Saakashvilli, a US favourite for his belligerence, attacked South Ossetia, killing many civilians and Russian peace-keepers, then had his backside kicked by the Russians. Either a deliberate lie or symptom of some psychosis, but absolutely par for the course. The lies being peddled over the LGBT issue are, similarly, approaching hysteria. But is that strange really? The psychic strain of constantly toeing a Rightwing/Murdochite line, without a scintilla of difference, while knowing that it is all lies, must have a terrible effect on any hack with a conscience still intact, no matter how atrophied. After a while only the fanatic ideologues remain, and that is the current state of the MSM in the West.

Rex Inutilis :

11 Feb 2014 7:31:55am

Wow! Do you even know what 'right wing' means? On what planet is the Putin regime left-wing? Because Russia is forever cemented in your mind with the Glorious Revolution? Do you still call Mongolians imperialists because of Genghis Khan? Yes the U.S. have vested interests in distorting what goes on in Russia just as the Russian regime distorts what goes on in the West. Or is this some knee-jerk game where Al-Qaeda are oppressed liberators because they are anti-West. Pray-tell what is the truth about being LGBT in Russia? Let me guess, they are given so much freedom that they are oppressing decent hetero working-class Russians?

Rex Inutilis :

11 Feb 2014 7:34:17am

Please go down the list and refute all these charges about the Sochi Olympics (yes, you will have to use factual research rather than sloganeering, sorry about that). Is Dave Zirin 'RightWing'?http://www.edgeofsports.com/2014-02-05-896/index.html

crank :

12 Feb 2014 12:34:43pm

OK, Rex, here goes. The LGBT (you left out I for intersex, you naughty King, you)business has been cooked up by the Western forces, state, ie the USA and EU, and 'private' the likes of Soros, as part of their regime change destabilisation attack on Russia. Part of the tactics, which are fully described on the web, including in US Government tactical manuals of how to foment unrest and civil strife in target states, is to get groups, particularly of the young and gullible, to engage in deliberately socially disruptive activity to split society and provoke a reaction from the authorities, whereupon the filth of the Western MSM propaganda apparatus start bellowing, in 100% unison, about 'human rights',etc. In states within the US Empire's orbit, where similar or worse repression occurs, the moral vacuoles of the 'Free Press' turn a well-trained blind eye. This is happening, plainly to those with the brains, knowledge and integrity to see, in Russia. Putin is immensely popular, but the Western publics are subjected to a 100% negative avalanche of criticism and hatred. Does it ever spark your interest that these target states, like China, Russia, Iran etc, if you were to believe the MSM hate propaganda, are Manichean hell-holes where the Governments never, ever, do any good, and the tiny coteries of anti-Government 'activists' make Mandela look suss? What is it about the Pussy Riot (in English-you can see who their audience is)harridans shoving frozen chickens up their private parts or engaging in anal intercourse in public that is so morally uplifting and freedom promoting? In Russia homosexuality is not illegal, unlike scores of other countries. Why is Russia being picked out for abuse? Try, for God's sake, to think this through. Do you really think that promoting civil war in Ukraine or Russia will be to the world's advantage?

crank :

12 Feb 2014 3:27:07pm

A perfect example of the filthy but perennial hypocrisy and double-standards of the Western MSM brainwashing apparatus is the treatment of Poland in contrast with Russia. There the Catholic Church is leading the Rightwing regime, a favourite of Mordor on the Potomac, to what has been called a 'sexual revolution in reverse'. The Church is particularly offended by 'gender' politics, ie sexual education, non-traditional marriages, contraception and gay relations, which Rightwing politicians have compared to 'zoophilia', the more polite form of our own Corey Bernardi's 'bestiality'. No word from the wonderful 'free press' and its fabulous 'truth-seekers' over that homophobic abuse, or the Croatian fascist regime(another US favourite and an early conduit for arms traffic to the cannibal jihadist butchers crucifying Syria)outlawing gay 'civil unions', just like their fellow fascists in Queensland. Of course, the Polish reaction shows just how priest-ridden that poor country remains. It looks like the Catholic hierarchy has gone feral in an effort to reassert its total control over society as the priestly paedophilia scandal finally breaks there. The Catholic hierarchy, like its shining jewel, Wojtyla, when he covered up priestly paedophilia aided and abetted by his 'ex'- Hitler Youth colleague, Ratzfinker, as Pope, has reacted to the exposure of its priest's wicked, wicked, ways, with abuse, threats and punishment and ostracism for priestly whistle-blowers. I had often wondered why the priestly paedophilia industry had not been exposed in Poland, imagining that it was due to Catholic domination of society. That certainly is true, but apparently, it was the confiscation of church schools and orphanages by the evil Communists that kept the opportunities for some priestly kiddy-fiddling at a lower level, until 'Freedom!!!',arrived in 1989, whereupon the 'Brothers' got down to it and began making up for lost time. As I said, in contrast to the wall to wall hysteria and abuse directed at Imperial Enemy Russia, this appalling situation (the Catholic hierarchy have even accused the victims of responsibility, saying that they were the ones 'seeking love' because they came from 'broken homes')has been studiously ignored by the presstitutes of the MSM because Poland might be a reactionary, priest-ridden and aggressive promoter of fascism in Ukraine, but that is how Uncle Sam likes it, and every MSM hack takes their cue from that.

crank :

19 Feb 2014 11:52:36am

Nicola, if you really think that John Howard's ABC has a 'Left' bias, then I strongly recommend that you seek treatment. Hour after hour, day after day, one 'guest' from Rightwing 'think'- tanks, the IPA, CIS, Sydney Institute, Grattan Institute, Quadrant etc after another, with overseas guest disproportionately Yankee and neo-liberal or neo-conservatives from the AEI, Heritage propaganda outfits, or some Canadians, from 'market fundamentalist' roots, only. Total Rightwing bias in coverage of Russia, Iran and China, ie 100% negative, and, as expected, grovelingly pro-Israel, with the occasional exception for PR purposes only. And near silence on anthropogenic climate destabilisation, and where mentioned, a 'false equivalence' between science and rationality and Rightwing denialism replete with lies and distortions, this an 'even-handedness' that they display nowhere else where it matters to the Bosses. And poor old Aunty acts almost as if it were the radio arm of Murdoch's flag-hulk, 'The Fundament', (The Fundamental Orifice of the Nation), having stories often ventilated in tandem with that shining exemplar of 'Yellow Journalism' at its grimiest. Who, or what, pray tell is the suppository...oops, sorry....repository of this 'Leftist' bias? And please, not poor old wheezing Phillip Adams, who, like Doogue, accommodated to the Howardisation with enviable aplomb.